Giant comet lights up skies

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A comet discovered by a Scottish astronomer has transformed southern hemisphere skies this week.

Thousands of people have gathered in Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and South Africa to watch Comet McNaught, the brightest comet seen from Earth in more than 40 years. It is one of very few comets that can be seen by the naked eye in daylight and is around 140 million kilometres (87 million miles) from the Earth.

The comet consists of a head bigger than Mount Everest and a tail that stretches 30 million kilometres into space.